DAILY BREAD NOW COSTS MORE DOUGH

NEW GLASGOW - If you've noticed that your daily bread costs a little more these days, you're not the only one.
A global shortage of wheat has caused a spike in price for products, such as flour - and the effects are being felt all the way down the line.
Jim Gennoe, president of B.M.S. Distributors, said he doesn't see those prices coming down anytime soon.
B.M.S., located in Plymouth, purchases flour from the world market as a commodity, and Gennoe said he sees those prices change on a daily basis. In the past six months, it's almost doubled, he said.
"We're a buy/sell company. We book flour on the world market and we take that cost and pass it on to our customers. And then, in turn, the customers have to pass it on to the consumer. So, there's a trickle effect."
Six months ago, Gennoe said the price of flour was roughly $12.25 for each 20 kg bag.
"And, right now, some flour is $14.95 and some of it has gone as high as $29.95." He added that even a price of $20 was hard to believe at first.
The price stems from a shortage in world wheat supplies, and there's a number of factors behind it. On the world markets right now, Gennoe said China is the biggest producer of wheat in the world. Canada is third after the U.S. China, however, doesn't export but instead it imports. And he said, with an expanding middle class, China will continue to need more grain as its population becomes more accustomed to eating a western diet - as a large part of the wheat it produces goes to feed livestock.
Then, couple that to added pressure on world supplies coming from Australia, where continued droughts have wreaked havoc with wheat crops. The BBC reported earlier this month that global stocks are at their lowest levels since 1979.
Last month, Statistics Canada recorded a 12.6 per cent increase in the price of wheat throughout January.
The agency reported that the prices for both wheat, and canola (which increased by 14.6 per cent during the same time period) continued to reflect conditions of limited supply and strong growth in demand.
One month earlier, it reported a 4.6 per cent rise in the cost of bakery products, adding it was a reflection of the "sharp price of wheat on international markets."
These costs have forced the individual baker to make decisions as to how they're going to adapt to the increase.
"Everyone's handling it a little bit differently, so I really wouldn't want to put words in our customers mouths as to what they should be doing per loaf. But most of them have raised their prices between 50 and 75 cents," Gennoe said.
B.M.S. is the largest wholesale bakery distributor in the Maritimes and carries 2,700 different items.
If you've ever glimpsed inside a bakery and saw a pallet of big paper bags of flour - or any other product for that matter, it's probably come through the company's warehouse.